～たり～たりする

The たり～たりする pattern is used to list actions as examples from a non-exhaustive set. It expresses the idea of "doing things like A and B (among other things)." Unlike listing actions with て-form (which implies sequence), たり～たりする simply presents representative activities without implying a particular order.

Formation

The たり form is made by adding り to the た-form of a verb:

• たべた食べた → 食べたり
• のんだ飲んだ → 飲んだり
• よんだ読んだ → 読んだり
• した → したり

At least two たり actions are typically listed, and the pattern always ends with する (or its conjugated forms such as します, した, している, etc.).

Conjugating する

The final する carries the tense and politeness of the sentence. It can be conjugated freely:

Past tense:

Negative:

Polite form:

Important nuances

• The たり～たりする pattern implies that the listed activities are just examples – there may be other things as well.
• The actions listed are not necessarily in order. They may happen in any sequence or even repeatedly.
• Sometimes たり is used only once when giving just one example activity, but the する at the end is still required:
  にちようび日曜日はげえむゲームをしたりする。

  On Sundays I do things like play games.

Alternating or repeated states

The same pattern describes states that alternate or keep repeating.

Dropping the final する

In casual speech the closing する is often left off, though including it makes the sentence complete.